Method and apparatus for electronic mailing of data utilizing a data reference

ABSTRACT

A mobile device for electronic mailing of data utilizing a data reference, the mobile device having: a communications subsystem for communicating with a wireless gateway; a user interface; a processor interacting with the user interface and the communications subsystem; an electronic mail application adapted to run on the processor; a data application adapted to run on the processor; and memory adapted to be accessed by the electronic mail application and the data application, the memory storing a data reference identifier for data in the data application, the data reference identifier capable of identifying the data on a data server remote from the mobile device, wherein the data application is adapted to interact with the electronic mail application to send data in an electronic mail message, and wherein the data is replaced in the electronic mail message with the data reference identifier.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/296,327 filed Dec. 8, 2005, the entire contents of which areincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE APPLICATION

The present application relates to electronic mail sent to and receivedfrom a mobile device, and in particular to electronic mail on a mobiledevice synchronized with a shared data server.

BACKGROUND

Mobile devices are used for numerous functions including electronicmail. However, as mobile devices become more sophisticated, users usethe mobile device for a variety of additional functions. For example, auser may be able to generate a memo for storing information such asmeeting minutes, details of telephone conversations, grocery lists orwhatever else the user may need to create a memo for. Other forms ofdata besides memos can also be created on the mobile device.

One limitation on mobile data devices currently is the sharing of datacontent with others. For example, if a user creates a series of tasksthat are required to be accomplished in a memo, the user may wish toshare these tasks with other individuals. Currently this requires thecopying of the data from the data application and pasting it into anelectronic mail application in order to send it to various recipients.

Once the data is pasted into the electronic mail message, it is thensent over the air to a wireless gateway. This requires network bandwidthin order to transfer the data, along with battery power to operate thetransmitter at the wireless device.

Similarly, if the user is receiving data from other sources, and wouldprefer to store them in the data application (such as a memoapplication), currently the user must copy the data from the electronicmail format and paste it into the data application in order to store itin the data system. Further, the data must be transferred over the airfrom the wireless gateway, again requiring sufficient bandwidth totransfer the data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present apparatus and method will be better understood withreference to the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary system utilizing the presentmethod and apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary mobile device utilizing thepresent method;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a mobile device sending data content;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a mobile device receiving data content; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an exemplary mobile device in moredetail.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present apparatus and method overcome the deficiencies of the priorart by providing a data application in which the data application canaccess the electronic mail application and in which specific datacontent can be electronically mailed directly from the data application.

In a preferred embodiment, the data content is stored on a shared dataserver and the mobile device periodically synchronizes with the shareddata server. One skilled in the art will realize that synchronizationcan occur using a variety of means including over the air, serialconnections such as USB or Bluetooth™, IrDA, or other synchronizationmethods. In this case, the data application would not send the datacontent over the air, but rather would send a reference to the datacontent. This saves network bandwidth and battery life on the mobiledevice.

In a preferred embodiment, the data application is an application forgenerating memoranda, and will be referred to herein as a memoapplication. The present system and method are however not meant to belimited to memo applications and other data applications arecontemplated to be within the scope of the present apparatus and method.

The mobile device can also, in a preferred embodiment, receive datacontent such as memos through electronic mail. In this case, the datawill be received by the electronic mail application, but the electronicmail application will have the capability of identifying that theparticular electronic mail message contains data content for the dataapplication and will thus be able to pass the content to the dataapplication.

In this embodiment, the electronic mail application receives anelectronic mail message with only a reference to the data content. Theactual data is stored on a shared data server. In this case, the dataapplication can store the reference until a synchronization occurs, atwhich time the user can have access to the data. If the user wishes toview the data immediately, then the mobile device can initiate asynchronization with the shared data server upon the user trying toaccess the data content in order to obtain the content.

As will be appreciated, the above method and apparatus therefore providefor a data application to have access to an electronic mail system forsending data content to recipients and further the data applicationreceives content through the electronic mail application. In a preferredembodiment the data is sent across the network by reference only, thussaving network bandwidth and battery life for the receiver andtransmitter on the mobile device.

The present application therefore provides a method for electronicmailing of data to and from a mobile device, said data being stored in adata server, the method comprising the steps of: replacing data in anelectronic mail message with a reference identifier, said referenceidentifier capable of identifying the data on the data server; andsending the message between a wireless gateway and the mobile device.

The present application further provides a mobile device for electronicmailing of data utilizing a data reference, the mobile devicecomprising: a communications subsystem for communicating with a wirelessgateway; a user interface; a processor interacting with said userinterface and said communications subsystem; an electronic mailapplication adapted to run on said processor; a data application adaptedto run on said processor; and memory adapted to be accessed by saidelectronic mail application and said data application, said memorystoring a data reference identifier for data in said data application,said data reference identifier capable of identifying the data on a dataserver remote from said mobile device, wherein said data application isadapted to interact with said electronic mail application to send datain an electronic mail message, and wherein said data is replaced in saidelectronic mail message with the data reference identifier.

The present apparatus and method will be described in more detail belowwith reference to the figures. In the figures below, the dataapplication described is a memorandum application. However, this is notmeant to limit the scope of the present apparatus and method, and otherapplications would be evident to those skilled in the art.Non-exhaustive examples could also include pictures, tasks or otherdata.

Referring to FIG. 1, a mobile device 110 includes a data applicationsuch as memorandum application 112. The mobile device further includesan electronic mail application 114.

Mobile device 110, in a preferred embodiment, occasionally synchronizeswith a shared data server 120. Synchronization can occur over the airthrough the radio frequency communications of the mobile device.Alternatively, synchronization can occur through a serial interface,such as universal serial (USB), or short-range wireless communicationssuch as Bluetooth™ or IrDA. In the case of the serial connection or theshort-range wireless communications, synchronization can occur with auser's desktop computer or other computer that has an establishednetwork interface.

In operation, mobile device 110 can periodically synchronize with shareddata server 120. This could include, for example, when the mobile deviceis first turned on. Other alternatives include synchronization as eventshappen on the mobile device. They could also occur when the mobiledevice establishes a network connection with a particular network. Otheralternatives for synchronization scheduling would be evident to thoseskilled in the art.

Shared data server 120 includes a data storage 122 which stores a copyof all of the data content required by mobile device 110. Using thememorandum example, all of the memos for the mobile device will bestored in the data storage area 122. Further, data storage area 122 willgenerate a reference identifying particular data content. Thisidentifier can take on various forms, such as a numeric identifier, thetitle of the particular memorandum, other alphanumeric combinations, orother similar other identification means. As long as the identifierconsumes less wireless resources to transmit than the data content andas long as the data server can map the identifier back to the particulardata content, the choice of the particular form of an identifier is notessential.

Mobile device 110 further communicates with a wireless gateway 130. Aswill be appreciated by those skilled in the art, wireless gateway cangenerally include a base station, base station controller and othernetwork components. The present apparatus and method are not meant to belimited to a particular wireless system and any wireless system in whicha mobile device can communicate with a wireless gateway 130 isenvisioned to be within the scope of the present application.

Wireless gateway 130 further communicates with shared data server 120and as is explained in more detail below, is capable of receiving areference from an electronic mail application 114 and using thereferences and a converter to insert the actual content in outgoingmessages.

Once the wireless gateway 130 has converted the message into anappropriate format, the message can then be sent over a network such asthe Internet 140 and to its ultimate recipient.

In the opposite direction, if the wireless gateway 130 receives amessage in which the recipient is the user of mobile device 110,wireless gateway 130 can include means to identify that the electronicmail message includes data content. In this case, the message can bepassed, first, to shared data server 120 which includes a data converter124. Data converter 124 is capable of recognizing the particular dataform and converting the data into a relevant format for a particulardata application. In the case of a memorandum, the wireless gateway 130will pass the memorandum within the electronic message to converter 124and the converter 124 will then convert the data into the proper formatfor a memorandum and pass it to the data content application 122 forstorage. The converter will then pass a unique identifier referring tothe data content back to wireless gateway 130. Wireless gateway 130 canrecompose the electronic mail message to include only the reference tothe memorandum when the electronic mail is passed to mobile device 110.

Mobile device 110 receives the message at electronic mail application114 and recognizes that there is a memo reference within the electronicmail document. This memo reference is passed to the data application112, which stores the reference.

The mobile device can then obtain the content of the memorandum usingthe memo reference during the next synchronization. If the user wishesto see the contents of the memo right away, synchronization or partialsynchronization can occur at the time that the user tries to open thememorandum for which the mobile device contains only a reference.Otherwise, if the user defers opening up the memorandum the mobiledevice can merely store the reference until the next synchronizationoccurs.

Reference is now made to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows a simplified mobile devicein which various applications are highlighted in block diagram format.The mobile device 210 corresponds with mobile device 110 from FIG. 1.

Mobile device 210 includes a communication subsystem 212 forcommunicating with a wireless gateway such as wireless gateway 130 ofFIG. 1. Mobile device 210 further includes memory 214 for storing dataand content on the mobile device 210. As will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art, a mobile device may not have a file structure butinstead store data sequentially within the flash type memory structure.Due to technology and space limitations, memory 214 is often limited insize. Thus, mobile device 210 will preferably include a garbagecollection application 216. Garbage collection application 216 will gothrough memory 214, and may strip the data content out of memory 214,leaving only the reference numeral. As will be appreciated, this willfree memory 214 for other storage.

A memo application 218 is illustrated in FIG. 2. Other data contentapplications, as described above, could also be utilized. Further, anelectronic mail application 220 is also illustrated.

Referring to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 illustrates a method of sending data contentsuch as a memo from a mobile device 210 or 110. As illustrated in FIG.3, a user from a data application such as a memo application can selectthe option of sending the content to a recipient. This could be done byallowing the application access to an address book on the mobile deviceto specify whom the data is to. Further, the interface may allow theselection of various options, for example, whether to attach the data asan attachment or to place the data within the body of the message. Themobile device thus generates a message in step 310.

The message and various options are then sent to the wireless gateway instep 312. As indicated above, the actual data is not sent in this step,but rather a reference to the data is sent over the air. This saves boththe battery life of the mobile device because the transmitter on themobile device does not need to operate for the same duration, and alsosaves network resources by reducing the bandwidth requirements for thesending of a message. At the wireless gateway the message is resolved.This is done by sending the reference that is currently in theelectronic mail to the shared data server and receiving from the shareddata server the data required for the message.

The wireless gateway then composes the message in a proper format andforwards it to its recipient over a network such as the Internet 140 asillustrated in FIG. 1. This is illustrated in step 316.

As will be appreciated, with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, step 310requires interaction between the memorandum application and the emailapplication in order to allow the message to be generated in thememorandum application but have access to the address book which isgenerally part of the electronic mail application and further to be ableto compose a message and send it as an electronic mail message.

Referring to FIG. 4, FIG. 4 illustrates the reception of a message withdata content. A wireless device such as wireless device 130 of FIG. 1receives a message that includes data content. This might be identifiedby the format of the attachment to the electronic mail message. This isdone in steps 410 and 412.

If, in step 412, it is discovered that data content does exist in themessage, the message is first passed to the shared data server in step414. The shared data server converts the message by striping the datacontent, creating a unique identifier in step 416 and passing the uniqueidentifier back to the wireless gateway in step 418.

The electronic mail message is then sent to the mobile device with thereference rather than the data content in step 420.

The mobile device receives the email message in step 422 and recognizesthat a data reference is included which is stored in a data applicationfor future access in step 424.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, if the message doesnot contain data content in step 412, the message is merely forwarded instep 430.

The above therefore provides for the sending and receiving data merelyby sending and receiving unique reference identifiers to and from themobile device, thereby saving network bandwidth and mobile deviceresources. Further, the above provides for the access to the electronicmail system from the data application, thereby reducing the number ofsteps that are required to be performed in order to share data contentwith others.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that many mobile devices could beused to implement the above. FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary mobiledevice that could be used with the above method and system. Mobiledevice 1100 is preferably a two-way wireless communication device havingat least voice and data communication capabilities. Mobile device 1100preferably has the capability to communicate with other computer systemson the Internet. Depending on the exact functionality provided, thewireless device may be referred to as a data messaging device, a two-waypager, a wireless e-mail device, a cellular telephone with datamessaging capabilities, a wireless Internet appliance, or a datacommunication device, as examples.

Where mobile device 1100 is enabled for two-way communication, it willincorporate a communication subsystem 1111, including both a receiver1112 and a transmitter 1114, as well as associated components such asone or more, preferably embedded or internal, antenna elements 1116 and1118, local oscillators (LOs) 1113, and a processing module such as adigital signal processor (DSP) 1120. As will be apparent to thoseskilled in the field of communications, the particular design of thecommunication subsystem 1111 will be dependent upon the communicationnetwork in which the device is intended to operate. For example, mobiledevice 1100 may include a communication subsystem 1111 designed tooperate within the Mobitex™ mobile communication system, the DataTAC™mobile communication system, GPRS network, UMTS network, EDGE network orCDMA network.

Network access requirements will also vary depending upon the type ofnetwork 1119. For example, in the Mobitex and DataTAC networks, mobiledevice 1100 is registered on the network using a unique identificationnumber associated with each mobile device. In UMTS and GPRS networks,and in some CDMA networks, however, network access is associated with asubscriber or user of mobile device 1100. A GPRS mobile device thereforerequires a subscriber identity module (SIM) card in order to operate ona GPRS network, and a RUIM in order to operate on some CDMA networks.Without a valid SIM/RUIM card, a GPRS/UMTS/CDMA mobile device may not befully functional. Local or non-network communication functions, as wellas legally required functions (if any) such as emergency calling, may beavailable, but mobile device 1100 will be unable to carry out any otherfunctions involving communications over the network 1100. The SIM/RUIMinterface 1144 is normally similar to a card-slot into which a SIM/RUIMcard can be inserted and ejected like a diskette or PCMCIA card. TheSIM/RUIM card can have approximately 64K of memory and hold many keyconfiguration 1151, and other information 1153 such as identification,and subscriber related information.

When required network registration or activation procedures have beencompleted, mobile device 1100 may send and receive communication signalsover the network 1119. Signals received by antenna 1116 throughcommunication network 1119 are input to receiver 1112, which may performsuch common receiver functions as signal amplification, frequency downconversion, filtering, channel selection and the like, and in theexample system shown in FIG. 5, analog to digital (A/D) conversion. A/Dconversion of a received signal allows more complex communicationfunctions such as demodulation and decoding to be performed in the DSP1120. In a similar manner, signals to be transmitted are processed,including modulation and encoding for example, by DSP 1120 and input totransmitter 1114 for digital to analog conversion, frequency upconversion, filtering, amplification and transmission over thecommunication network 1119 via antenna 1118. DSP 1120 not only processescommunication signals, but also provides for receiver and transmittercontrol. For example, the gains applied to communication signals inreceiver 1112 and transmitter 1114 may be adaptively controlled throughautomatic gain control algorithms implemented in DSP 1120.

Network 1119 may further communicate with multiple systems, including aserver 1160 and other elements (not shown). For example, network 1119may communicate with both an enterprise system and a web client systemin order to accommodate various clients with various service levels.

Mobile device 1100 preferably includes a microprocessor 1138 whichcontrols the overall operation of the device. Communication functions,including at least data and voice communications, are performed throughcommunication subsystem 1111. Microprocessor 1138 also interacts withfurther device subsystems such as the display 1122, flash memory 1124,random access memory (RAM) 1126, auxiliary input/output (I/O) subsystems1128, serial port 1130, keyboard 1132, speaker 1134, microphone 1136, ashort-range communications subsystem 1140 and any other devicesubsystems generally designated as 1142.

Some of the subsystems shown in FIG. 5 perform communication-relatedfunctions, whereas other subsystems may provide “resident” or on-devicefunctions. Notably, some subsystems, such as keyboard 1132 and display1122, for example, may be used for both communication-related functions,such as entering a text message for transmission over a communicationnetwork, and device-resident functions such as a calculator or tasklist.

Operating system software used by the microprocessor 1138 is preferablystored in a persistent store such as flash memory 1124, which mayinstead be a read-only memory (ROM) or similar storage element (notshown). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the operatingsystem, specific device applications, or parts thereof, may betemporarily loaded into a volatile memory such as RAM 1126. Receivedcommunication signals may also be stored in RAM 1126. Further, a uniqueidentifier is also preferably stored in read-only memory.

As shown, flash memory 1124 can be segregated into different areas forboth computer programs 1158 and program data storage 1150, 1152, 1154and 1156. These different storage types indicate that each program canallocate a portion of flash memory 1124 for their own data storagerequirements. Microprocessor 1138, in addition to its operating systemfunctions, preferably enables execution of software applications on themobile device. A predetermined set of applications that control basicoperations, including at least data and voice communication applicationsfor example, will normally be installed on mobile device 1100 duringmanufacturing. A preferred software application may be a personalinformation manager (PIM) application having the ability to organize andmanage data items relating to the user of the mobile device such as, butnot limited to, e-mail, calendar events, voice mails, appointments, andtask items. Naturally, one or more memory stores would be available onthe mobile device to facilitate storage of PIM data items. Such PIMapplication would preferably have the ability to send and receive dataitems, via the wireless network 1119. In a preferred embodiment, the PIMdata items are seamlessly integrated, synchronized and updated, via thewireless network 1119, with the mobile device user's corresponding dataitems stored or associated with a host computer system. Furtherapplications may also be loaded onto the mobile device 1100 through thenetwork 1119, an auxiliary I/O subsystem 1128, serial port 1130,short-range communications subsystem 1140 or any other suitablesubsystem 1142, and installed by a user in the RAM 1126 or preferably anon-volatile store (not shown) for execution by the microprocessor 1138.Such flexibility in application installation increases the functionalityof the device and may provide enhanced on-device functions,communication-related functions, or both. For example, securecommunication applications may enable electronic commerce functions andother such financial transactions to be performed using the mobiledevice 1100. These applications will however, according to the above, inmany cases need to be approved by a carrier.

In a data communication mode, a received signal such as a text messageor web page download will be processed by the communication subsystem1111 and input to the microprocessor 1138, which preferably furtherprocesses the received signal for output to the display 1122, oralternatively to an auxiliary I/O device 1128. A user of mobile device1100 may also compose data items such as email messages for example,using the keyboard 1132, which is preferably a complete alphanumerickeyboard or telephone-type keypad, in conjunction with the display 1122and possibly an auxiliary I/O device 1128. Such composed items may thenbe transmitted over a communication network through the communicationsubsystem 1111.

For voice communications, overall operation of mobile device 1100 issimilar, except that received signals would preferably be output to aspeaker 1134 and signals for transmission would be generated by amicrophone 1136. Alternative voice or audio I/O subsystems, such as avoice message recording subsystem, may also be implemented on mobiledevice 1100. Although voice or audio signal output is preferablyaccomplished primarily through the speaker 1134, display 1122 may alsobe used to provide an indication of the identity of a calling party, theduration of a voice call, or other voice call related information forexample.

Serial port 1130 in FIG. 5 would normally be implemented in a personaldigital assistant (PDA)-type mobile device for which synchronizationwith a user's desktop computer (not shown) may be desirable. Such a port1130 would enable a user to set preferences through an external deviceor software application and would extend the capabilities of mobiledevice 1100 by providing for information or software downloads to mobiledevice 1100 other than through a wireless communication network. Thealternate download path may for example be used to load an encryptionkey onto the device through a direct and thus reliable and trustedconnection to thereby enable secure device communication.

Other communications subsystems 1140, such as a short-rangecommunications subsystem, is a further optional component which mayprovide for communication between mobile device 1100 and differentsystems or devices, which need not necessarily be similar devices. Forexample, the subsystem 1140 may include an infrared device andassociated circuits and components or a Bluetooth™ communication moduleto provide for communication with similarly enabled systems and devices.

The embodiments described herein are examples of structures, systems ormethods having elements corresponding to elements of the techniques ofthis application. This written description may enable those skilled inthe art to make and use embodiments having alternative elements thatlikewise correspond to the elements of the techniques of thisapplication. The intended scope of the techniques of this applicationthus includes other structures, systems or methods that do not differfrom the techniques of this application as described herein, and furtherincludes other structures, systems or methods with insubstantialdifferences from the techniques of this application as described herein.

1. A method for sending data content from a mobile device storing datacontent in a data server, the method comprising steps of: generating anelectronic mail message at the mobile device, the message including datacontent stored in the data server; generating at the data server areference identifier identifying the data content stored on the dataserver; receiving at the mobile device the reference identifier from thedata server; replacing data content in the message with the referenceidentifier; and sending the message from the mobile device over awireless network.
 2. A method according to claim 1, further comprisingreplacing the reference identifier with the data content after themessage has passed over the wireless network.
 3. A method according toclaim 2, wherein the reference identifier is replaced with the datacontent by sending the reference identifier to the data server andreceiving the data content from the data server in response to thereference identifier.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the generatingthe electronic mail message is performed at a data application.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the data application is a memorandumapplication.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data content isperiodically deleted from the mobile device, wherein referenceidentifiers are left the mobile device.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the reference identifier is selected from at least one of anumeric identifier, an alphanumeric identifier, and a subset of the datacontent.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving occurs duringsynchronization between the mobile device and the data server.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the synchronization occurs using a serialinterface or short range wireless communications with a computer, thecomputer communicating with the data server.
 10. The method of claim 8,wherein synchronization occurs over a radio frequency communication witha network element, the network element communicating with the dataserver.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the data content referred toby the reference identifier is associated with a data applicationseparate from an electronic mail application.
 12. A mobile devicecomprising: a communications subsystem for communicating with a wirelessnetwork; an electronic mail application; memory configured to beaccessed by the electronic mail application, said memory beingconfigured to store data content reference identifiers for data contentstored on a data server remote from the mobile device; and the emailapplication being configured to replace data content stored in the dataserver with a data reference identifier in an outgoing electronic mailmessage.
 13. The mobile device of claim 12, further comprising a dataapplication, wherein the email application is accessed by the dataapplication to generate the outgoing electronic mail message.
 14. Themobile device of claim 13, wherein the data application is a memorandumapplication.
 15. The mobile device of claim 12, further comprising agarbage collector configured to periodically delete data content fromthe mobile device, wherein reference identifiers are left at the mobiledevice.
 16. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the referenceidentifier is selected from at least one of a numeric identifier, analphanumeric identifier, and a subset of the data content.
 17. Themobile device of claim 12, wherein the reference identifiers are storedin the memory during synchronization between the mobile device and thedata server.
 18. The mobile device of claim 17, further comprising ashort range wireless communications subsystem for said synchronization.19. The mobile device of claim 17, further comprising a serial interfacefor said synchronization.
 20. The mobile device of claim 17, whereinsynchronization occurs over the communications subsystem.
 21. The mobiledevice of claim 12, wherein data content referred to by the referenceidentifier is associated with a data application separate from the emailapplication.